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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Stephen King's "It"

It's
the day before Halloween, and believe me...I've saved my scariest post for
last.

You
see...I'm not going to be online much this coming Halloween, so I have a post
that is largely going to be illustration based for tomorrow. Don't fret though. This post will give you some last minute ideas for Halloween
treats that you can serve at parties or what have you.

No,
for today, I thought that I would use this edition of TUBE
TALK THURSDAY
to discuss not a sitcom, not a drama, not even an episode of America's Funniest
Home Videos.

No,
this week, we're going to be talking about a miniseries. A miniseries that admittedly scared me so
much as a kid that I couldn't watch the whole thing until well into my
twenties.

And
it's such a strange thing to me that I would be afraid of watching this
miniseries because I have never, ever suffered from coulrophobia in my entire
life.

Which
I suppose leads you to wonder - what the heck is coulrophobia? Is it a fear of being cold? A fear of colouring books? A fear of turning into a different colour?

Nope. Coulrophobia is a fear of clowns.

Now,
I'll readily admit that the only time I have ever been afraid of clowns is when
they make those stupid balloon animals - and in that case, I hated the balloon
animals more than the clowns. Truth be
told, I've had no reason to really fear clowns. I watched Bozo the Clown.
I liked the McDonald's commercials with Ronald McDonald. I didn't even mind seeing Binky the Clown on
Garfield, or Krusty the Clown on The Simpsons.
Clowns didn't bother me.

And
yet, I know so many people who are terrified by the very sight of clowns. I don't know if it's the make-up on their
faces, or their high pitched laughter, or the loud and garish clothing that
clowns are known to wear, but it just freaks them out to the point where they
can't even go near them.

Now,
I imagine that everyone's fear of clowns likely originated somewhere. And for people who are my age, their fear
may likely be linked to one clown in particular.

Say
hello to Pennywise, the Dancing Clown!

Now,
you might think that this clown is as harmless as a feather...but Pennywise
holds a really dark secret. A secret
that will be revealed in the television miniseries "It", a miniseries
that aired in two parts in November 1990 on ABC.

Of course, the brainchild behind the book that this miniseries is based off it
is horror master Stephen King, so naturally it shouldn't come as too much of a
surprise that Pennywise would be revealed to be absolutely evil. But man, oh, man does Tim Curry play the
role of the demented clown well. In
fact, all of the actors in the miniseries did extremely well in their
portrayals of the main characters.

Okay,
so what exactly is it about Pennywise that makes him so frightening? Maybe it's his creepy laugh? Maybe it's his disturbing clown make-up.

Or
maybe it's because Pennywise has been killing small children in the town of
Derry, Maine for three decades! And
perhaps the catalyst of all this begins in the year 1960 when a six year old
boy named Georgie Denbrough is playing with a paper boat that drifts into the
sewer grate. Pennywise appears in the
grate and convinces Georgie to climb down inside the grate with him because
there are lots of fun things down below.
And, well, as you can see in the clip below, it doesn't quite have a
happy ending.

Georgie's death has a significant impact on his brother Bill. Bill was the one who sent Georgie outside to
play which lead to his death, and he is later immobilized in fear when a
picture that he drew begins to bleed.

Fortunately,
Bill finds support in a group of friends who all have had something traumatic
happen to them. Eddie Kaspbrak is an
asthmatic, hypochondriac whose mother refuses to let go of her little boy. Ben Hanscom is a chubby boy who lives to
build things, who is still dealing with the fact that his father died. Beverly Marsh has to deal with having an
abusive, alcoholic father while practicing the perfect way to use a
slingshot. Richie Kozer is the one person
in the group who isn't afraid to stand up to the school bully Henry
Bowers. Mike Hanlon is the new kid in
town, trying to find his way into a new community. And Stan Uris is a kid from a Jewish family who loves
birdwatching.

Now,
friendship does bring all seven kids together, but ultimately it is fear and
anger that cements the bond between the seven children.

Fear
of and anger towards Pennywise the Clown.

You see, Pennywise isn't just a clown.
He's actually a shape shifting being that can morph into whatever form
he chooses, all for the purpose of scaring people to death. That's why in later scenes, Pennywise is
referred to as being just "It".
And "It" invades the lives of all seven children by teasing
them and torturing them, hitting them where it hurts.

For
instance, in the case of aspiring actor Richie Tozier, "It" appears
in the form of a werewolf.
"It" causes Beverly's bathroom to become engulfed in a geyser
of blood. "It" taunts Ben
with gruesome images of his deceased father who orders him to go near the
sewer. And it nearly traps poor Stan in
a haunted house which is being guarded by a mummy.

And
on top of all that, Henry Bowers and his crew of bullies are popping out at
every opportunity to scare and tease the seven children. As if battling "It" wasn't bad
enough already.

Eventually
this leads to a huge confrontation with Pennywise the Clown, and all seven
children find a way to defeat him by exploiting his weakness - because
"It" transforms into anything he wants through the imaginations of
children, the kids come up with the theory that if they attack "It" with
the weakness of the item or person that he is portraying. For instance, if "It" transforms
into a snowman, they reason that they could defeat him by making him stand in
front of a space heater.

And
after a frightening encounter by Stan - which sees "It" murder Henry
Bowers' pals - Stan deduces that the "deadlights" are the real
target. The kids reason that by
destroying the deadlights, they will kill "It" once and for all. But before Beverly can line up the perfect
shot, "It" disappears into the night. All seven kids make a pact that should "It" reappear in
Derry, they'll be ready.

Well,
flash forward thirty years, and Mike is the only one who is still in Derry, the
others having left long ago. And Mike
is concerned when the news reports on the death of a little girl in her own
backyard. The circumstances behind the
death are mysterious, and nobody knows what is going on. But Mike suspects that "It" is
back, and he makes six phone calls to his six friends, warning them that it was
time to take care of business once and for all.

But
who, if any, of the seven children who are now adults make it out alive?

Well,
that would be revealing too much, wouldn't it?
After all, this is kind of similar to a movie entry, and I don't like
spoiling movies. But it's very
interesting to note that all seven children had some sort of trauma in their
lives, and how all seven became friends because of that. And, I wonder if maybe "It" gained
power through other people's misery. It
certainly makes sense if you look at it from that perspective.

Anyway,
I have a little bit of trivia and stuff about the actors, behind the scenes
action, and other miscellaneous info about "It". For instance, did you know...

...that
two of the actors from "It" died the same year? John Ritter died on September 11, 2003 from
aortic dissection. Two months later on
November 12, 2003, Jonathan Brandis (who played the role of 12-year-old Bill)
took his own life.

Did
you know that the actor who played the young Henry Bowers (Jarred Blancard) was
extremely uncomfortable with using the N-word towards Marlon Taylor (young Mike
Hanlon)? He would always apologize
profusely to Taylor before shooting the scenes in which he had to say the word.

Did
you know that Tim Curry doesn't really like talking about his role as Pennywise
the Dancing Clown that much in interviews?
He also reportedly hated wearing all that clown make-up.

Did
you know that Alice Cooper was once considered to play the role of
Pennywise? Now THAT would have been
epic.

Did
you know that in the library scene, some of the actors were actually
injured? The amount of falling objects
in the scene caused some people to get slightly hurt.

Did
you know that the library scene only took one take?

Did
you know that John Ritter took a memento of the set from
"It" after filming wrapped?
He took home a playing card with Pennywise's face stamped on it.

Did
you know that some of the actors who played the "Lucky Seven" worked
together on previous projects? John
Ritter and Richard Thomas, for example, worked together on "The
Waltons".

Did
you know that Eddie's medications that were used in the film were actual
bottles that belonged to Dennis Christopher?

Did
you know that Tim Reid's gray hair in the miniseries was not real? The effect was made by having Reid comb his
hair with a comb dipped in baby powder.

Did
you know that while Richie was terrorized by a werewolf in the movie, Seth
Green - who played Richie as a child - actually played a werewolf on the
television series "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer"?